BlackBerry Empathy is Just a Concept Phone But Some Filipinos on Twitter Still Want One!

I don't really know who the heffa bothered to dig the story out of the 2010 tech archives but the two year-old BlackBerry Empathy concept is back and currently trending on Twitter like it never left --

If you failed to catch the "handset" two years ago, BlackBerry Empathy is a concept phone presented by designers Daniel Yoon and Kiki Tang at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA for a design project then sponsored by Research in Motion.

Yoon describes the 'smartphone',

It is of course touch based and all the user’s connections are shown graphically so you can see who is connected to whom. Each contact has an avatar that is encompassed by two colored rings. The inner colored ring shows the contact’s previous emotional state, and the outer ring represents the contact’s current emotional state. It is important to show the shift in emotions in order to see how an event has affected that contact.

Another important feature that we felt was important was the "Emotional Health Chart". This chart would monitor the user’s emotional health through an indefinite period of time. One would be able to see how a certain event, or phone call/ message has affected the user. Obviously, if the chart shows someone is always upset, there would be a problem… If permitted, a user would be able to view other user’s charts as well. [via]

Looks cool and all but won't see production!

Nonetheless, despite the fact that it's not real (in strictest sense of the word) and that the concept is now way old, BlackBerry Empathy - miraculously - still managed to mount a comeback and be a hit among some Pinoy Tweeps (, which makes me wonder all the more who started this trend on Twitter and what his real intention is for doing so);

Anyway. RIM has a new CEO; Here's to hoping he's fun enough to see the fact that BlackBerry Empathy trended on Twitter as a good sign for the company to make some -- if only to create more buzz among hardcore fans. That'd be crazy.